Vermont adopts first US GMO food labelling law
Food produced from genetic engineering should be labeled as such
View the post titled Vermont adopts first US GMO food labelling lawSecond shoe falls: flyrock discharge after Castonguay
If every rock that flies through the air, and does damage, is a "pollution" offence, what else is?
View the post titled Second shoe falls: flyrock discharge after CastonguayA rare pesticide prosecution
Ontario Pesticide Act prosecutions have become infrequent since the Ministry of the Environment stopped having specialized pesticide enforcement staff. It’s hard to know how much actual offences have decreased. The ban on cosmetic uses of pesticides may have helped, and pesticide opera…
View the post titled A rare pesticide prosecutionHuge manure spill fines: $120,000 plus surcharge
Two hog farming businesses and a Director must pay manure spill fines of $120,000, plus $30,000 victim fine surcharges, for discharging pig manure into the Thames River and Sweets Creek. The manure impaired the quality of water, contrary to the Ontario Water Resources Act. The individual Dir…
View the post titled Huge manure spill fines: $120,000 plus surchargeAnti-fracking bylaws: US Lawyer wins green Nobel prize
Helen Slottje, a lawyer in Ithaca, New York, was recently awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work “helping towns across New York defend themselves from oil and gas companies by passing local bans on fracking” (the US equivalent of anti-fracking bylaws). Her legal res…
View the post titled Anti-fracking bylaws: US Lawyer wins green Nobel prizeMore Ontario Statements of Environmental Values proposed
The Ontario Ministries of Rural Affairs and of Agriculture and Food have each proposed a draft Statement of Environmental Values under the Environmental Bill of Rights. The Ontario Environmental Commissioner has, for many years, called for all ministries who make decisions with significant e…
View the post titled More Ontario Statements of Environmental Values proposedSupreme Court of Canada gives Chevron permission to appeal Ecuador pollution decision
The Supreme Court of Canada has granted Chevron’s application for leave to appeal the Ontario Court of Appeal decision allowing Ecuadorian plaintiffs to sue here to try to collect their $18 billion Ecuador pollution judgment. According to a US court, that award was based on fraud. Our …
View the post titled Supreme Court of Canada gives Chevron permission to appeal Ecuador pollution decisionAnother fine for not reporting flyrock as environmental discharge
Last year, Castonguay Blasting lost its appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada against a conviction for failing to report flyrock as an environmental “discharge” under the Environmental Protection Act. Now they have been fined $75,000 for essentially the same offence on another oc…
View the post titled Another fine for not reporting flyrock as environmental dischargeGood news: clarity to come on single use battery “recycling” in Ontario
What should count as battery “recycling”? Is it good enough to melt single use batteries into nickel mill slag, which is put in roadbeds as “aggregate”? Or should we insist on up-cycling end of life batteries, i.e. carefully separating and reusing each of the hazardous components…
View the post titled Good news: clarity to come on single use battery “recycling” in OntarioFirst “climate refugee” case going to appeal in New Zealand
On 1st May, 2014, the New Zealand Court of Appeal will hear Ioane Teitiota’s claim to become the world’s first climate refugee. Mr. Teitota is from a remote atoll in the Pacific nation of Kiribati, one of the lowest-lying nations on Earth. He is trying to convince New Zealand jud…
View the post titled First “climate refugee” case going to appeal in New ZealandReceive Blog Posts
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